The high prices of all commodities have been steadily rising in the last ten years. This is not helping the farmers, as the profits resulting from these high prices vanish in the bottomless pockets of food trusts and middlemen and completely ruin the working people. The wages are not rising in the same proportion as the prices; they are declining, and employment begins to be scarce. The large majority of the workers are employed only about two-thirds of the time. It is hard to believe that the American worker, especially the one who has been born here or has resided in the United States for a long time, and who remembers periods of prosperity, would meekly accept the change for the worse. The frequently occurring strikes are the worker's natural weapon of defense against exploitation, and the idea of suppressing this movement by using force is a very unreasonable one.

The manufacturers and their agents are trying to convince the authorities that 2with the aid of their Pinkertons and their private army of police and strikebreakers they will suppress what they call "red" outbreaks. The psychology of the American workers is such that using physical force against them causes more opposition and will not help to solve the labor question. As an example, we may take the incident in Colorado, where workers were forced by merciless exploitation to strike. This is not an ordinary strike; well armed miners are fighting a regular battle with the other side's well armed sluggers and the state militia.

Let us hope that this incident in Colorado will open the eyes of our shortsighted politicians, and force them to take the labor question into more serious consideration, and do something to stop the exploitation of the working class.